EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Oscar-winning screenwriter attacks Madonna and Rupert Everett for how their rom-com flop had a punishing effect on director John Schlesinger before he died

Madonna and Rupert Everett would doubtless rather forget the existence of 2000 flop rom-com The Next Best Thing but Oscar-winning screenwriter Frederic Raphael has launched a stinging attack on the pair for the punishing effect making the film had on its director, John Schlesinger.

It was his final film before he died 20 years ago this month. 

In a letter to Schlesinger published in his new book Last Post, Raphael writes: 'You once again absconded from England in order to do that last Hollywood movie The Next Best Thing, with Madonna and Rupert Everett.

'You were no longer a director with whom it was a privilege to work. You worked for them and they had you know it. 

'There's a nasty, twisted donnée in the mastering of a one-time master by two quasi-stars who take their pleasure in the knowledge that he has a job only because they chose him.' Ouch.

As the cost of living crisis bites, spare a thought for TV tough guy Ross Kemp. 

'We've got a very old swimming pool which I insist on keeping really cold because I can't afford to heat it,' growls the actor, best known for playing thuggish Grant Mitchell in EastEnders. 

The star, 59, who used to be married to media boss Rebekah Brooks, adds in Waitrose & Partners Weekend (where else?): 'My children have no issues with swimming in the North Sea, because that's what it's like in our pool.'

Age-defying Bunny Girl Kate throws wild 50th bash

She shares her birthday with Sir Mick Jagger — whose raucous 80th attracted much attention. 

And Kate Beckinsale celebrated her 50th in similar fashion with a blow-out bash complete with outfit changes, three birthday cakes and some very risque dancing.

The London-born star dressed up as a Playboy Bunny with bow-tie collar, black ears and ripped fishnet tights.

She posted videos of herself dancing to music with a group of her friends including American actress Demi Moore at her Hollywood home and was treated to three cakes.

'What a party — full of love and glitter and the best people,' says Kate (below in red).

She had earlier celebrated with her mother, Judy Loe, who was married to her father, Richard Beckinsale, until his death in 1979.

Made In Chelsea star Spencer Matthews has been ordered to tear down a tool shed he built without planning permission at the £7 million Jersey estate he shares with his wife, model Vogue Williams.

Matthews, 34, sparked a row with a neighbour after building the structure in a field near his five-bedroom home which boasts a pool, gym and snooker room.

The resident objected, saying it was within a designated Protected Coastal Area. Matthews applied for retrospective consent but officials have upheld the complaint.

Royal explorer Rosie Stancer, whose grandmother was the Queen Mother's sister, has clearly passed on her adventurous genes to her son. 

Jock Stancer is cycling almost 2,000 miles from London to Bergen, in Norway, on a self-built bamboo bicycle to raise funds for charity. 

Rosie once cut off two frostbitten toes with a penknife during a failed solo attempt to reach the North Pole.